A report from the contractor argues that with the right regulatory regime and incentives the industry can deliver big savings in carbon dioxide emissions and cash savings.

Mace argues that across Greater London it could be possible to save more than 13.8m tonnes of construction waste – worth £1.25bn over the next 10 years  – through the adoption of circular economy principles.

This would translate to 11m tonnes of CO₂ saved over a decade, which is equivalent to 3.5% of the UK’s annual emissions.

Over a decade, construction and demolition activities generated 1.54m tonnes of identifiable waste in the City of London. That is equivalent to 2.7 tonnes per worker in the City.

Of this amount, only 10% of this waste was recycled back into construction.

It recommends that circular economy principles are incentivised and embedded across the building lifecycle.

The report ‘Closing the Circle’ claims that the UK capital is the ideal place to build the world’s first true circular construction economy due to its highly innovative construction firms, developers and occupiers helped by planning authorities that are already promoting circularity practices.

It calls for a legislative mandate, and financial incentives like reductions in Section 106 requirements where circular practices are adopted.

A circular construction economy is driven by  – targeting a reduction in the use of raw materials, and finding new and innovative methods to recycle and directly reuse waste materials where possible.

In a bid to reduce the use of virgin materials by ‘reducing, reusing and recycling’ it also recommends:

• Develop physical and virtual ‘circularity material banks’ that enable smaller firms to take advantage of materials produced elsewhere in the industry.
• Introduce ‘materials passports’ that track the source of materials within the supply chain and enable easier re-use, an approach that digitally catalogues the materials and components used within a building to promote easier reuse at the end of the buildings’ lifespan.
• Bring industry and government together to build a credible circularity accreditation scheme to allow clients, investors and contractors to demonstrate the value of their commitment to circularity.

James Low, global Head of Responsible Business at Mace, said: “We must be able to deliver zero embodied carbon buildings and infrastructure within our lifetimes, and we believe that the transition to a circular economy is among the most important innovations and system changes required to achieve that.

“This requires the entire industry to come together to provide the information, products, construction practices, and behaviours required to realise the potential carbon savings associated with a more circular model in London over the next decade.”